Abraham: A Journey to Greatness—Gen. 12: 1-9; Philippians 1: 20-26
I will freely admit that some mornings getting out of bed is hard. I say, 5 more minutes, one more time on the snooze button, or think I can maybe dress a little faster to make up the time. But the truth is many of us rarely jump out of bed preparing for greatness. Instead, we drag ourselves out of bed and hope we can meditate, drink enough coffee, or get on enough makeup to look somewhat human. I doubt we could be like Abraham, or Abram as he was called in the scripture today.
When we encounter him today, he is called by God to a journey. God says that Abram is to leave the only country he has ever known and journey to this unknown place where God will make his descendants into a great nation. God called him to a tremendous journey. In 1983 Malachi Martin wrote in the New York Times that from his home in Ur, Abram traveled 700 miles to the boarders of Iraq, 700 miles into Syria, 800 miles to Egypt, then back into present day Israel. In light of Abraham going 2,200 miles on foot, I realize I should probably stop complaining about a 10-minute delay at the 16/75 intersection. It could be worse!
But there’s a very clear pattern to that relationship to God which comes with saying yes and taking the journey God has prepared for you and I. Abraham lived it. Paul lived it, and now that same pattern of God’s grace and power works for us. Here is the pattern: journeys bring blessings, blessings require promise, and promise is found in trust—journey, blessing, promise, and trust.
In some way, we are all on a journey. For some of us here, it’s a journey to mental and physical wellbeing. For others it’s a journey into a new understanding of faith that is centered on God’s love instead of painful old human traditions. For some, it’s finding a new place after retirement, moving to a new place, or learning how to fit in to a new faith community and where our part is. Each of us has some journey intimate and personal to us and our lives. Abram was called to journey to a promised land far away. Paul was called to journey around the fullness of the known world in order to tell of the grace of Christ to all, which Paul speaks of saying that the Philippians would take great pride in what Christ is doing through him. Each of us lives on a new and different journey in life.
Along the way of that journey, we find that as we walk with God, God will bless us. One commentary said that the creation story makes it clear that blessing is woven into God’s purpose for the entire world all throughout history and even after sin entered into the world. We hear that word a lot…the blessing before the meal, giving something your blessing, or even what a blessing it is that football season is starting back up. I hear that phrase many times this time of year, and no, this Kentucky boy is not going to give my blessing to the phrase, “Go Dawgs.” Nope. Nada. Not going to happen.
For our journey, God’s blessing means favor and protection, and for us it is something that brings well-being. And just as God blesses us on our journey, we are to bless, or bring favor and wellbeing, to others. God’s favor and protection saw Abram through the thousands of miles of journey and into the promised land. God’s blessing saw Paul preach, travel, heal, and bless others across countless cities, nations, and peoples. Blessings are part and parcel of God’s companionship on our journey here on earth.
Blessings, however, are dependent upon God’s promises and our trust in those promises. When God called Abram, God also made a promise in verses 2 and 3: “I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” God made a lot of promises to Abram: to be with him, to bless him, to help him bless others, and many descendants later on the scripture.
Paul also seems to trust in the promises which God makes. Paul fully believed his life would bring honor to Christ, and he is unconcerned what happens to him. He was certain that any time he had on this earth would allow him to do more fruitful work here for Christ. Paul’s words are proof that we never get too old, never too far on the journey, never too tired and worn out to offer others the blessing found in the promise of a loving, redeeming, and inspiring God.
God took Abram, just some guy from Ur and made him the father of many nations, the very patriarch of the Hebrew faith. God took Paul, a pharisee devoted to the persecution and annihilation of followers of Christ and made him the greatest missionary of the Christian faith the ancient world had ever known. That journey, that blessing, that fulfilled promise came about because of their trust. It is our trust in God which keeps us on the right journey, ready to grow, ready to thrive, and ready to be a blessing to others.
Paul reminds us as part of that journey that there is an ending point. He writes to the Philippian church that he longs to go and be with Christ, for to die is a gain to him. Now in long-standing places of faith, this welcome home at the end of the journey, or Heaven, is an established and well-known belief. To the rational thinkers in our modern day, reason-based and evidence-based people we often meet, that belief gets a bit more difficult because it takes such a leap of faith.
I believe, though, that at the end of our journey, God gives us a “welcome home.” These past two weeks, I spent my time in a difficult trial with victims who were mentally disabled and extremely vulnerable. Their lives were hard, filled with victimization, instability, poverty, and outright suffering. It’s ugly. It’s awful. For the people like those victims I worked with this week, for the ones who are vulnerable, for those who live rough, painful, and difficult life, I have to believe there is a welcome home in the end.
Just like Abraham reached the promised land, there has to be a promised land waiting at the end of the long journey. Just like Paul believe that on earth he would be fruitful, but in death he received the ultimate blessing and realized promise of God, there has to be a blessed welcome home. In life, there are many who will suffer horribly, whose journey is long and hard, and for whom blessings are few and far between. In the face of those circumstances, I have to believe there is a welcome home from a God who loves us all. And I pray that as we journey, we will follow in the way of Christ and be a blessing to others, for that is what makes our own journeys great.
Service Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/1319766195225742